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    Emperor’s Bane
    Emperor’s Bane
    Emperor’s Bane
    Ebook70 pages1 hour

    Emperor’s Bane

    By S. J. A. Turney

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    About this ebook

    From barbarian slavery to conquest and treachery.

    For centuries, the Khmar have eked out a nomadic existence on the fringes of civilisation. Tenzhin is only a boy when his tribe strikes deep into the Jin Empire and faces the might of the Jade Emperor. After his father is killed before his eyes, he is plunged into a new world: ancient, courtly – and brutal.

    Adopted by the Emperor, the boy must forget his old life and learn to survive the challenges of life as a prince. Tenzhin must perfect his mind, his soul and finally his body, in order to prepare for what lies ahead. Allies are few and far between, and eventually he must face the biggest trial of them all…

    Emperor’s Bane is a novella set in the Tales of the Empire universe. A gritty tale based on the Mongolian invasions of imperial China, it will engross readers of Guy Gavriel Kay and Conn Iggulden.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCanelo Adventure
    Release dateJul 18, 2016
    ISBN9781911420415
    Emperor’s Bane
    Author

    S. J. A. Turney

    S.J.A. Turney is an author of Roman and medieval historical fiction, gritty historical fantasy and rollicking Roman children's books. He lives with his family and extended menagerie of pets in rural North Yorkshire.

    Read more from S. J. A. Turney

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      Book preview

      Emperor’s Bane - S. J. A. Turney

      Emperor’s Bane

      S.J.A. Turney

      Canelo

      Autumn

      Tenzhin Khanzada was seven cycles of age when his father died and he learned the first great lesson of his life. As the gods rolled their dice and men screamed, Tenzhin stared at the horror around him, silently contemplating how such a disaster had befallen them.

      The nine tribes of the Khmar Badlands were warriors. It was considered a matter of extreme dishonour to die of nature’s degradation, when a man could die with a blade in his gut and his enemy’s spittle upon his face. Death in battle was the norm and the only acceptable way. The children of the tribes learned to use a curved knife, a straight sword and a long spear before they learned even the litany of their fathers and their father’s fathers. Tenzhin himself had memories of being beaten by his father only two years ago for being unable to lift the great, heavy spear for long enough to strike a dummy – the corpse of a captured Lekhmi tribe warrior. Even the tribeswomen were trained in the arts of war so that in the event of a dire defeat they could protect their lands, and as often as not, the women would bloody their blades in the endless disputes between tribes.

      The world might have trembled at the Khmar tribes’ very name, except for one sad and eternal fact: for a thousand years the nine tribes had fought one another tooth and nail over territory, or successions, or insults, or theft or, if the urge took them, nothing at all. For the tribes would fight each and every war season, and unless they wished their families whittled down to nothing fighting among themselves, the answer was to fight one of the neighbouring tribes.

      And in the months between the war seasons – known as the life seasons – the tribes would recover and take their cattle and goats to the high plains, gathering fodder for the rest of the year and watching the new life grow among their herds.

      Then, three life seasons ago, everything had changed. The engineers of the Jin Empire to the south had extended their massive wall, the height of four men and dotted with heavy towers. The great fortification sealed in the sacred lake of Zhuona and cut off one of the widest of the watercourses, redirecting it into the empire’s borders where it now irrigated farmland. The following three years were difficult enough with the droughts that had been gradually increasing each cycle, but with the lack of water from the lake and the river, the herds had begun to starve and die, and with them the tribes to which they were inextricably linked.

      During the last cycle, for the first time in the history of the nine tribes, a moot had been called for a reason other than settling a dispute. The Bhakhan of each tribe, along with his advisors and the most influential warriors, met at the great Eagle Rock where the skulls of the ancients were kept, and what had always been a tribal tribunal became a council of war.

      The tribes unanimously decided that the Jin Empire had to pay for its misdeeds. The Jade Emperor’s wall must be breached, his lands plundered and his peoples enslaved for the benefit of the tribes. They would raid and return with enough booty to rebuild their lives independent of the great Jade Emperor.

      But then Tenzhin’s father had spoken. At just four cycles of age, Tenzhin should not have been in attendance, but his mother had died of a rotting wound that cycle and so he was to be kept close to his father, as was appropriate for a tribe’s heir. Tenzhin had watched with impassive fascination as the Bhakhans of the tribes fought for the right to lead the war. After all, everyone knew that no group of men could lead as well as one man alone. Four Bhakhans died in that dreadful contest, and of the four other losers, two died of their wounds during the next cycle. Tenzhin’s father lost an arm but won the right to lead. As he burned the stump with gritted teeth, he changed everything. He was no longer Bhakhan, but would be full Khan of all the tribes.

      And as long as he would lead the collective, Tenzhin’s father would not settle for raiding and theft. Had he not seen a new future? The tribes lived in badlands that barely allowed them to eke out a life, even in the best years. Rocks, deserts, salt-marshes; the only good grazing land on the high plateaus. Freezing in some seasons and searing in others. And across that high wall, still under construction, lay fertile land and cities of wood and paper that were filled with food and loot. Why should the tribes take only what they could carry and return to their own poor territories, when these lush lands to the south could be theirs forever?

      Invasion.

      A war of total control. After all, what people in the world could hope to face the Khmar tribes if they fought side by side? It was an infectious idea, one which raced through the hearts and minds of the tribes and seized their desire. The war began early. The tribes could gather with remarkable speed, and with this great roll of the dice there was no longer any need to remain tied to the war and life seasons. And so that life season, rather than taking their herds to the high places, anyone who could lift

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